Ellington

The UW Board of Regents meets once a month to make decisions that affect the campus community. This month, the regents approved the budget for two campus-wide renovation projects, reviewed an update of the Ethnic Cultural Center (ECC) expansion, and approved the extension of an online-course pilot project.

Safe Campus project

The Board of Regents approved $8 million of state funds to be used for modifying the fire-alarm systems of 150 buildings across campus.

This endeavor, called the Safe Campus Fire and Life Safety Monitoring and Notification System Project, will provide central monitoring of the alarm systems for 144 buildings on campus and six new buildings currently under construction. The new central-monitoring system will broadcast mass notification to at least 90 of these campus buildings in the event of public-safety threats, according to the proposal.

The new system will replace the existing Central Fire Alarm Receiving System, which was installed in the 1960s.

“The system’s mechanical components are beyond their useful life and no longer cost-effective to maintain,” the administration and the finance, audit and facilities committee wrote in the proposal.

The target completion of the project is June 2011.

Smart Grid Project

The Board of Regents approved a $9.3 million budget for a project that will monitor campus-wide energy usage.

The UW Smart Grid project has several components. Smart meters will be installed in 148 campus buildings, selected generation facilities and the campus medium-voltage power-distribution system. Among other components, 32 building automation systems and 8 building lighting systems will be modified to send data to the smart grid; a private campus intranet network will be expanded to collect energy data; and two computer hardware and software systems will be purchased to analyze campus energy usage, according to the proposal.

“The upside potential for this project is integration into student life, research, education and the position of the university around sustainability and clean energy is enormously important,” said President Mark Emmert during discussion of the project. “It will give us very high visibility in this arena … It’s far more than just an energy retrofit.”

The Smart Grid project will be funded by a combination of sources, including a grant from the Department of Energy, university building funds, Seattle City Light funds, state-treasury loans, and donations.

The project was first introduced to the Board of Regents in November 2009 and is expected to be completed by May 2012.

ECC expansion update

While the current budget for the ECC expansion — funded by student fees — is $15.5 million, the Capital Projects Office is working with the design team to lower the total cost to $13.95 million — 10-percent less — in response to prior cost concerns expressed by the Board of Regents.

The expansion entails the demolition of the current 10,000-square-foot, single-story ECC building, and the construction of a new 25,000-square-foot, three-story building in its place.

In spring quarter 2012, a $90 student fee to fund the ECC, HUB and Hall Health projects will be implemented — an estimated $11 of which is allocated specifically to the ECC expansion.

The new ECC building will be occupied by March 2012.

Online-course pilot-project extension

In February 2009, the Board of Regents granted approval of a pilot project that would charge an additional $350 fee to undergraduate students for each online class they take. While initially granted just for the current academic year, the board approved extension of this financial model for the pilot project into the 2010-11 academic year.

“The extension of this pilot would help us determine the usefulness of online courses in a broader spectrum of disciplines, its role in large lecture classes, and the differences between its effectiveness in lower- and upper-division courses,” the academic and student affairs committee wrote in the proposal.

The $350 fee is used for online-course development, instruction and administrative costs of the classes with at least 40 students.

The feedback from students regarding this year’s online-course pilot project was generally positive, according to the proposal. For example, 76.2 percent of student respondents indicated that the online-learning course as a whole was “good” or “excellent.” However, a majority of student respondents indicated that they would rather not pay the extra fee, believing that online learning courses cost less.

Reach reporter Joanna Nolasco at news@dailyuw.com.